How do you photgraph Times Square at night?

[ALT1MATE]

I bought a Tamron 17-50 2.8 from B&H yesterday and was excited to see how it would take pics at night. I decided to go to Times Square at around 1am. Much to my disappointment none of my pics came out the way I wanted them to be. I was shooting at 1/30, f2.8, ISO 800/1600, evaluative metering, and Av +2. The white lights were washed out and the dark buildings seemed to blend into the night.

What metering should I use? Should I be using partial or center metering? I have a XTI. Any help is appreciated.

[tsw910]

when shooting at night, its best to use a tri-pod .. when you bracket for the bright neon lights of time square .. the dark will be very dark which caused it to blend with the dark night .. so try using a tripod and use a longer exposure

[ALT1MATE]

I figured that but what about the "video billboards"? Some of the billboards are scrolling or full-on video. Won't those be blurred?

Attached are two of the photos I took. Its actually not bad now that I think of it. Damn this small XTI screen! It looked much worse when I previewed it last night...

http://lh3.ggpht.com/IanMedina/SKRokLISEnI/AAAAAAAACXY/AFaA0emOd6g/IMG_5612.jpg?imgmax=512

http://lh3.ggpht.com/IanMedina/SKRojIq6vbI/AAAAAAAACXQ/-6VbQ8OsgEE/IMG_5623.JPG?imgmax=512

Bigger image: http://picasaweb.google.com/IanMedina/Miscellaneous/photo#5234423637583467122

[Mike McCusker]

Considering your settings and the lack of a tripod, I don't see where you could have done much better. Nice attempt...

[tsw910]

yes, it would be blurred ...

by looking at those pictures .. its not that bad, it can definitely be recovered in Post processing ..

[runninmann]

Reminds me of the old joke, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Practice, practice, practice!:lol:;)

[ALT1MATE]

Yes, I definitely need practice. I didn't even know what to take pics of.

[striving]

I would also recommend going out before its totally dark. Like about 15-30 mins after sunset. This leaves some available light in the sky (even though it may look dark/black). You will still need a tripod and a slower shutter. But your sky will not look so dead. (Unless that is what you are going for).

An example.. this was taken just after sunset.
Settings:
Time: 7:35 PM (sunset i believe was around 7:05)
f/9.0
ISO: 100
Shutter: 5 secs
18MM.

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii148/striving67/Photog/Night%20Shots/sanwasml.jpg

[runarut]

This may not be the effect you are looking for but...

This seems to be to be an ideal example of where HDR techniques might be helpful given that the contrast between the neon signs and the background is greater than what can be recorded by the camera.

I would use a tripod and set the camera to do autoexposure bracketing of +/- 2. You may run into problems where motion within the field of view on long exposures will cause their own difficulties. Then HDR merge the photos and tone map the result to something that is as natural as Times Square can be.

On the other hand, this may not be the look you are trying to achieve.

[O3DigitalBath]

You could always try to do a longer exposure for the buldings and a quicker shot to freeze the billboards and then put them together in post so you have your building exposed correctly without having the billboards blurred to hell.

obviously a tripod would make that a lot easier.

[izzy35]

may be a silly question but are any of these using FLASH, or is it all handheld as is, with no flash??

[FLiPMaRC]

:cool: Very nice first attempt. But you can't beat a steady tripod and a small aperture for night scenes ;)